


5 trips to the Arcade + 1 Date

by Okikage



Category: Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Arcades, Flashbacks, Heartbeat Kink, Ichijouji Ken’s Memory is Swiss Cheese, Jogress Heartbeat Connection, M/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Requited Unrequited Love, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:22:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23064673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Okikage/pseuds/Okikage
Summary: Ken and Daisuke like to go to the arcade together, despite the fact that Ken struggles to play games at all, remembering a time he thought real, living beings were just parts of a computer game.Five snippets of their various trips to arcade complexes, and one date that ends up there too.
Relationships: Ichijouji Ken/Motomiya Daisuke | Davis Motomiya
Comments: 6
Kudos: 28
Collections: Daiken Discord Server





	5 trips to the Arcade + 1 Date

  1. Fall 2003



Ken hasn’t played a video game in over a year. He’s tried, once or twice, turned on the console and let it boot up. He sometimes even gets past the title screen, starting a save file.

That is about the time the flashbacks start, and Ken is thrust two years ago, when he received a mysterious email.

The memories are fractured, a kaleidoscope of events and actions and he can’t understand how they go together. There’s an ocean crashing against a barren beach, computer code flying by at a rate he kept up with at the time and no longer comprehends, finding a ‘cool new game’ he could rule over.

And he turns off the console.

Daisuke had asked him to come over and play video games. It was a normal thing that boys their age did, he should be able to do it. He doesn’t want Daisuke to know he can’t.

Daisuke probably already knows he can’t. He knows so much about Ken, logical guesses that end up being right, literal emotions he can feel. It’s terrifying, being known so deeply, but also makes his heartbeat race to try and catch up with Daisuke’s.

So he’d said no. Sat through Daisuke’s pouts and moaning about how he wants to hang out with Ken more. Agreed to a compromise that they would go out somewhere.

Which is how they ended up in front of the Odaiba Round 1.

“Let’s check out the crane games!” Daisuke drags him along by his wrist, the light pressure warming Ken to the core. The bright lights and dazzling array of colors from the machines is almost too much, and Ken is already developing a headache. Daisuke flits through the rows, pausing occasionally to coo and gasp at the fluffy prizes inside their clear glass cubes. Watching him is enchanting, Ken can’t look away from the bright, smiling face of his friend, having the time of his life no matter what he’s doing and where he is.

“What do you think of these?” Daisuke asks, looping a friendly arm around Ken’s shoulders and maneuvering him to the front of a smaller cube, containing several adorable rabbit keychains of various colors.

“They’re very cute,” Ken says, clutching his hands together for something to do with them. Daisuke’s hand is resting on his upper bicep, keeping him in a gentle side hug and Ken’s heart begins pounding in sync with his.

“Do you want one? I bet I can get that purple thing, it’s practically hanging off already!” Daisuke points out one of the keychains, this rabbit clutching its face with its paws, in contrast to a pink one holding a single ear and a white one with a neutral pose.

“Are you actually good at these, Motomiya?” Ken raises a sharp eyebrow and stares down at his friend.

“Just watch.” Daisuke disengaged from Ken’s side, which made him want to frown for some reason, and pulled out a 500 yen coin, sliding it into the machine. “The trick is to try and knock it, because you’re never gonna hold on the whole way.”

His first round connected, looking pretty good. The bunny’s too-big head was trapped between two of the three prongs, shook as it ascended, and....fell off before reaching the prize drop.

“Okay, okay, that one wasn’t great,” Daisuke said, gesticulating wildly. “But now it’s closer, see?”

Ken did not see one bit of difference between where the bunny had been and where it was. “I see.”

The next four attempts slowly moved the bunny to just tipping on the edge of the prize drop, and Daisuke was actually growling.

“Oh come on! It should have fallen that last time!” Daisuke dug into his pocket, fishing for another hundred yen.

“It was a good try,” Ken said.

“Oh ho, I’m not done, Ken. I’m getting that bunny thing for you.” Daisuke dropped another coin into the machine, sticking his tongue out in concentration. Ken stared at his face as he maneuvered the claw one last time, feeling hot for some reason.

“Yes!” Daisuke suddenly shouted, and Ken got a good view of his eyes sparkling with triumph and him turning a 100 watt smile in Ken’s direction. “Got it!”

Sure enough, the bunny was sitting in the prize drop, ready to be picked up. Daisuke pulled it out and held it up next to Ken’s face. Ken took an aborted step back, hitting another crane machine.

“It matches your eyes.”

Ken’s face felt like it was on fire. He accepted the bunny with a murmured thanks, putting it in his pocket. Daisuke squeezed his bicep and pulled him further into the arcade, towards the back games area.

The crane games abruptly shifted into rhythm games, and at the very front was a new Taiko drum machine. Daisuke clapped his hands quietly, and grinned at Ken.

“Wanna play?”

Ken’s heart sped up, hammering in his chest. It was just a rhythm game. There weren’t any characters. There wasn’t any violence. He could do this. He looked up at the red and blue machine, pumping music into the surrounding area, bumping bass that reverberated into him, out of time with his own and Daisuke’s heart and making him feel dizzy. The game had little mascots, drums with cute faces that bounced on the screen. They looked like digimon.

They looked like Digimon.

There were Digimon that looked like them.

Digimon that he’d found, and captured, and put dark rings on and made fight and he could see them right now, the little drum’s eyes were glowing red and there was a black line around its middle and -

Daisuke was shaking him.

“Hey, Ken? You good?”

Ken focused on Daisuke, letting the noise and over-stimulating sights dissolve into the background. “I’m getting a bit of a headache...”

Daisuke shuffled them out of the arcade as fast as he could, and walked Ken to the station.

“Sorry about cutting our time short,” Ken said, looking at his shoes.

“Don’t worry about it! Let’s hang this weekend, it’s an off week for soccer.”

“That would be nice.”

When Ken got home, he pulled out the tiny bunny from his pocket and stroked its soft fur, smiling. He got out his school bag, plain black with no adornments beyond the silver buckles, and attached the rabbit to the side with its silver chain. It looked - nice.

  1. Spring/Summer 2005



The three year anniversary of The End was quickly approaching. Ken shouldered his soccer bag, every muscle aching from today’s practice. Soccer was so much harder than it used to be - everything was harder. All the school work he still had to do piled up in the back of his mind as he walked out the gates - and almost ran into Daisuke.

“Motomiya! What are you doing here?”

“Welllll,” Daisuke started. “If my best friend is going to skip every digital world get-together I figured I could come see him in the real world.”

Ken fidgeted with his bag’s strap, jostling the purple rabbit chained to it. “I’m sorry.”

Daisuke was looking at him with an intensity usually reserved for the field, like he was searching Ken’s demeanor for something specific. After the longest 3 seconds of Ken’s life, Daisuke sighed dramatically, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his cargo shorts.

“Everyone’s so busy nowadays. It’s kinda bringing me down, y’know? We haven’t hung out in over a week.”

Ken barely resisted the urge to say ‘I’m sorry’ again. He looked at Daisuke, wearing his usual half-school-uniform half-cargo-shorts-desperately-changed-into weekday attire, looking not at all like Daisuke should. Shoulders slumped, his usual sunny smile replaced by a slight frown, and Ken wanted desperately to do something to fix it right now.

“Want to go somewhere?” He don’t know why he said that. Ken didn’t have time to wander around for hours - he still had his english homework and part of a history essay to outline, not to mention the math for his after school program he’d been putting off. But seeing Daisuke smile like that, his whole face lit up, made the rest of the world disappear.

“Let’s go to the arcade!” Daisuke grabbed his arm without the shoulder strap in a tight squeeze, pausing in the middle of pulling Ken along to the right. “Uh, where is one in Tamachi?”

“The one near the station only has a couple cranes and a row of gachas. I usually go to Shibuya.”

“Ooh, ‘usually’? So you do other things than just studying after all!”

Ken felt his face flushing as the two of them walked to Tamachi Station. At least Daisuke didn’t look slightly sad like his mother did when he got behind and had to study more to catch up. Sometimes he thought she didn’t want him to study. It was nice not being pressured to do perfectly in school, but he still wanted to do  _ well _ .

Daisuke’s arms were wrapped around his when they ascended the steps up to the gates, only letting go to beep in.

“It’s just been...weird, y’know?” Daisuke said, saddling up next to Ken in the crowded train car. “It’s still first quarter and Miyako is already acting like it’s exam time. I barely get to talk to Hikari and Takeru and they’re  _ in my class _ .”

Ken tried to make supportive interjecting sounds, but he had seen the rest of the the Chosen Children even less. Daisuke was basically the only one to go across the bay and see him - which made sense, everyone else lived in Odaiba, but it left Ken out of many more impromptu get-togethers. Ken didn’t mind, seeing too many people all at once was way too overwhelming. Just seeing Daisuke one-on-one was the best, anyway.

Daisuke had slid an arm around his middle, using him as a handhold rather than grabbing the one next to Ken’s head. He could feel the wrinkles developing in his uniform jacket, and leaned into Daisuke’s side.

“I don’t think there’s anything to worry about, Motomiya. You’ve always been good at getting everyone together.”

“I know high school is hard, but I  _ miss _ Taichi-senpai. His first soccer match this year is coming up in a few weeks, you know?”

“Well, you’ll have just to wait til’ then to see everybody,” Ken said with a smile.

Daisuke brightened. “Yeah! That’s a great time to meet up! You can make the trip too!”

“Of course.”

When they reached Shibuya’s Taito Station, Ken immediately veered into the stairwell and began climbing to the third floor on autopilot.

“Where we going, then?”

Ken turned around, running a hand through his hair nervously like he just remembered Daisuke was there too. “Sorry. I come here...pretty often. There’s a game I really like.”

“Well lead the way! Seriously, Ken, that’s awesome, I haven’t seen you  _ like _ a game since we met.” 

Ken’s face flushed as he guided them to a strange machine, with an octagonal pad with almost a transparent cage-like look about it. Music poured from it, not just Japanese, but lots of English songs as well booming out of the speakers.

“Ooh, yeah, I’ve seen this,” Daisuke said, “The wave-y arm thing, right?”

“It’s called....parapara paradise,” Ken whispered, drowned out completely by the ambient noises of rhythm games in both use and idle mode.

“Yeah! I’ll give it a try.” Daisuke scrounged in his pocket for his flame-decorated coin purse, pulling out a hundred yen and slotting it into the machine. He fumbled through the select screens, picking a random song on easy mode.

“Do you even know how to play?” Ken leaned against the side of the machine, hands in his pockets.

“I just gotta hit the arrows, looks a lot like DDR.”

He was terrible. Completely off beat, even with the slow, easy notes crawling up the screen. His arms flailed wildly in an attempt to register the sensors, way too rigid and stiff. Ken stifled his chuckles as best he could, but Daisuke shot a scowl at him while trying to finish the song with some semblance of an okay score.

The rankings cycled. B.

“Not bad.”

“Shut up, Ichijouji! I saw you laughing, why don’t you go next?”

Ken replaced Daisuke within the sensor area, closing his eyes and taking a long, deep breath. Unlike Daisuke, Ken actually played this - and games like it - quite a lot. It was a good game. No violence, no fighting, no...characters, really. Just patterns and beats he could learn and understand, if he worked hard enough at it. He upped the difficulty to max, picked a favorite song, and struck a starting pose.

The sharp bass beats pulsed within him, and he began to dance. The arrows gave him a blueprint to follow, something to focus on while his mind fell into the background, not having to think so much, awake without racing from morbid to anxious thoughts.

It was different now. He was here, in the music, but was also acutely aware of Daisuke’s eyes on him. He could feel the weight of Daisuke watching him, and it made his heart race even more. He could hear Daisuke’s heart pick up the pace along with him.

He finished with his legs apart, nearly on the edge of the sensors, one arm finishing the final hold arrow, and a flair of the other hand posed over his face. He relaxed and turned to where Daisuke was openly staring at him, jaw slack and eyes dark.

“Wow. That was...wow,” Daisuke eloquently said, making Ken look away and tuck his hair behind his ear anxiously.

“Told you I come here pretty often.”

  1. Winter 2006



Hikari proposed the Christmas Karaoke Party first, of course.

She planned and called ahead, booking a four hour time slot on one of the busiest days for the parlor. Because it was the first day of Winter Break. Because the four of them in third year deserved some time off just to hang. Because she wanted everyone together, instead of random sporadic smaller groups. Because if she didn’t make plans at least a week in advance Iori would inevitably drop out and not come. Because apparently Ken was ‘a hermit’ and Daisuke was ‘hogging’ him.

Ken fidgeted with his sleeves as their group entered the Odaiba Round One, Miyako in the lead.

“Alright! To the fourth floor!” Miyako jabbed the elevator call button with more force than was strictly necessary, flashing a big smile towards the others.

“It’s just Karaoke, Miyako-chan,” Hikari said with a smile toward her excitable partner.

Miyako looked a bit chagrined, but took Hikari’s hand in her own. “Actually, it’s Karaoke with my five favorite people. Especially you.”

“Hey, get a room!” Daisuke looked more uncomfortable than usual.

“We’re about to.” Miyako and Daisuke’s continued argument was cut off by the elevator’s arrival, the six of them crowding in, and Daisuke leaned into Ken’s space.

“Jeez, does she have to rub it in my face that both her and Takeru got with Hikari and not me?” He whined in Ken’s ear.

“Don’t you think you’re taking it a bit too personally?” Ken hedged.

"This is just cruel, Ken. Cruel and unusual!”

“What’s cruel and unusual?” Takeru asked, loud enough for everyone to hear.

“Nothing!” Daisuke jumped as everyone turned to stare at him. “Everything’s fine! It’s a party! We’re gonna have a good time!”

Raised eyebrows were all the reply Daisuke received.

Within the karaoke room, Ken somehow ended up next to Iori on the side couch. Despite everything they’d gone through, Iori never really got close to Ken. He was polite and formal and never really felt fully like Ken’s  _ friend _ , not like the others had slowly become over the years.

It had been over four now. Four years since it all ended, in just a few days. And still Iori treated Ken like he felt he should be, in his dark moments.

Daisuke and Takeru were singing some duet, really getting into it, trying to one-up each other still.

“So...how’s middle school for you?” Ken tried to talk to Iori, the icy atmosphere between them suffocating him.

“It’s been fine. Everybody kept talking about some new fighting game at the last Kendo Club meeting instead of practicing, though. I haven’t played it.”

“Hey, me neither!” Ken had no idea why he was excited about that. The best thing he and Iori had in common was neither played video games. He sighed.

“Daisuke hasn’t pulled you into it?”

“I don’t really...do that sort of thing.”

Except now Iori was looking straight at him, scrutinizing him with his uncomfortably focused gaze.

“Don’t what now?”

“I don’t...play video games.” Ken was saved by Daisuke almost falling into his lap and shoving one of the mics into his hands.

“Ken! C’mon, sing something! They’ve got some English and Spanish songs if you want to show off.”

Ken did not pick a song the rest of the group would barely understand, mumbling through a generic pop song that he’d heard from the girls in his class. He wasn’t very good, but the others politely clapped when he was finished anyway. Hikari pulled him into another song right after, this one a little slower, romantic. She was pretty clearly singing it towards Takeru and Miyako, in between waggling her eyebrows at Ken and gesturing her head towards Daisuke, who was obliviously sipping on a melon soda.

Ken finished the song sure he looked like a tomato, and Iori took the mic from him, vacating the spot next to Daisuke.

“Did you know Iori wasn’t going to  _ sing _ ? We have got to get that kid out more! Luckily, no one resists my charms,” Daisuke laughed, scooting close to Ken.

“Ah, so he’s up there to get away from you, makes sense,” Ken joked back.

Daisuke laughed, lightly punching Ken’s shoulder. “We’re definitely taking the next song together for that one, Ichijouji.”

The afternoon flew by in a series of songs, solos and duets mixed with a couple trios and full group ballads. Ken found himself smiling gleefully along with the rest of them.

Which was how he was caught off guard by Iori sitting on the armrest next to him. “Why don’t you play video games?”

Ken’s mouth gasped like a fish, no noise coming out.

Iori didn’t relent. “Why don’t you play video games, Ichijouji-san?”

“I just don’t. Why don’t you play games, Hida-kun?” Ken found his voice, indignant.

“The thing is.” Iori stared at Ken, sharp. “I know you played one ‘video game’.”

Ken volunteered to pick the next song.

He didn’t calm down, or stop singing, for another twenty minutes, when Iori announced he was leaving early. He needed to get home in time for dinner with his mother and grandfather, after all. All the chosen said their goodbyes, and Iori’s look toward Ken told him he wouldn’t just drop whatever was going on between them today. Iori was probably the last person in this room he’d  _ pick _ to talk about those particular neuroses with.

Left with the triad, Ken and Daisuke gravitated toward each other. Ken tried not to think about how it felt like a particularly uncomfortable double date, tried not to want Daisuke to give him chaste little kisses like Hikari gave Takeru gave Miyako gave Hikari. Hikari saw, though. She gave him smug looks, and prodded him toward Daisuke at every opportunity, just subtle enough it would make him the awkward one if he called her out on it.

“Ahh, I’m sorry, everyone,” Hikari suddenly fell onto one of the couches, and Ken’s mouth went dry. “I’m developing a pretty bad headache.”

“Oh no! Are you okay, Hikari-chan?” Takeru cradled his girlfriend.

“Yeah, I’m fine. But I think I’ll have to head home early too,” Hikari flashed a smirk toward Ken and he realized.

This was her Hail Mary.

“We’ll take you home!” Miyako took Hikari’s other side, holding her hand.

Daisuke piped in, “We can -“

“No, no, Daisuke, I don’t want to ruin your good time. You and Ken should stay out the last half hour, have fun.” Hikari was led from the room by her two datemates, hugging Ken and Daisuke goodbye.

As soon as the door closed, Daisuke whooped and did a half turn in mid-air. “Finally!”

“You...wanted them to leave?” Ken gingerly sat on the end of the middle couch.

“I don’t want to sound like a jerk, but....yes. I’m happy for them, but being the third wheel - or fourth and fifth or whatever - is  _ awkward _ . I don’t think I could handle it if I wasn’t over Hikari.” Daisuke plopped down right next to Ken, completely ignoring the many other, further away seats that were now available.

Ken chuckled. “It is a little weird, isn’t it? Being all over each other in public, too. I couldn’t.”

“You’re all about being the perfect gentleman with your lady-friends, eh, Ken?”

“I imagine I would,” Ken said, looking away from Daisuke.

“No luck for you too? But you’re hot!” Daisuke said, and Ken nearly exploded from his blush.

“You’re....nice-looking as well,” he whispered hoarsely.

“Yeah, but I’m like, an alternative kind of hot. You’re basically the classic ikemen. You should be swatting away the girls.”

He was. But telling Daisuke that he turned down his classmates all the time because he didn’t like any girls seemed dangerous. Too close to the fact that he had liked someone specific for four years now.

After he didn’t respond for several seconds, Daisuke thankfully filled the beginning of an awkward silence. “We got time for four more songs at least, let’s do....this one!” He flicked the remote to the opening of Happy Seven.

And belted out the whole thing perfectly. It was the best singing Daisuke had done all evening, likely helped by the simple lyrics and melody. As the instrumental faded out, he smiled down at Ken, looking radiant with a bit of sweat on his brow and his hair somehow even messier than usual without a pair of goggles to hold some of it in place.

Ken smiled back, his heart hammering in his chest, the faint shadow of Daisuke’s own elevated heart rate behind it.

  1. Spring 2007



“Congratulations!” Daisuke shouted as soon as Ken swung open his apartment’s front door.

“...you could have just texted a response.” Ken held up his phone, a deadpan look on his face.

“No way, it’s not every day the genius boy Ichijouji Ken gets into Azabu! We’re celebrating,” Daisuke pulled Ken out of the apartment, barely letting him slip on his outdoor shoes.

Daisuke led Ken to a cute cafe just a few blocks from his apartment that he’d never actually stepped into before. The display sweets behind the counter looked delicious, light and delicate. Daisuke ordered a slice of cake and two fancy lattes, paying for it all and refusing anything from Ken. They found a seat in a quiet corner, the plush cushions on the iron wrought chairs extremely comfortable.

“So, how are you feeling?” Daisuke asked as he put down the coffees with pretty fern designs on top.

“I don’t know,” Ken said, staring at the tabletop.

“Aren’t you excited?”

“I guess? I’m nervous, I think. Sure, I got in, but can I keep it up?” Ken took a sip from his cup. “I barely got in. Three more years of this, and then what?”

“Eh, you’ve got those three years to figure out what’s next.” Daisuke sipped his own drink and dug a fork into the cake. “Plus, have you seen that soccer field?”

Ken snorted. “Have  _ you _ seen the soccer field? I actually took a campus tour when I went to take the entrance exam.”

“I’ve seen pictures!” Daisuke laughed. His eyes were like liquid chocolate. He drummed his fingers on the table as he practically drained his cup, placing it down forcefully. “Eat your celebration cake.”

Ken obliged, extremely aware of the fact he was using the same fork Daisuke had just put in his mouth. It didn’t mean anything, he wasn’t imagining how it was an indirect kiss, how Daisuke’s tongue would -

Ken pushed the half-eaten cake away. “I don’t  _ have _ to go to Azabu, just because I got in.”

Daisuke began to chomp down on the rest of the cake without a care in the world. “True. You could go wherever you want. Musashi or Kaise-“

“Odaiba.”

Daisuke dropped the fork from his hand, clattering to the tabletop. “What?”

“I could go to Odaiba High School.”

“What?”

Ken dropped his head, hair falling in front of his face, hiding. “Izumi-senpai goes to Odaiba.”

“Koushiro-senpai is getting a rubber stamp before he starts his own electronics company.”

“I’m just saying...it’s an option. Mama pointed out it would be nice to go to school with you and everyone else.”

Daisuke’s fingers slowly slid through his hair, moving the longer strands to uncover Ken’s face, playing with the ends. “You don’t have to do that. I never want to - hold you back.”

“You wouldn’t be. Both Yamato-senpai and Taichi-senpai got into good colleges from Odaiba and prep school. It would be...nice. We could play on the same soccer team.” Ken fidgeted but didn’t pull away from Daisuke playing with his hair. It was nice. Something he wanted desperately and maybe didn’t deserve.

Daisuke move to cup his cheek and for a brief moment Ken thought he was going to lean in and kiss him, but no. He stood up and slipped his hand off Ken’s face, offering a hand up. “It would be nice, but promise you won’t pick your school entirely on us.”

“I promise.” Ken took Daisuke’s hand and didn’t let go as they exited the cafe, feeling Daisuke squeeze his palm lightly as he led them down the street, further away from Ken’s apartment. “Where are we going now?”

“Somewhere fun,” Daisuke refused to give any more information as they headed northeast on the train, away from both their homes. Daisuke had said they were going to ‘celebrate’ Ken’s admission, and leaving their little corner of Tokyo wasn’t totally out of the norm. There was usually more information though, and Ken was getting increasingly uncomfortable. Daisuke often forgot the fact that he didn’t like surprises, but he tolerated them much more readily from Daisuke than from anyone else, so that may contribute to the forgetfulness.

'Somewhere fun’ was apparently the SEGA building in Akihabara.

“C’mon, there’s some new games I wanna try out!” Daisuke pulled the door open, waiting expectantly for Ken to walk in.

“No fighting games. You know I don’t play them,” Ken said as he slipped through the doors, Daisuke following behind.

“One of these days, Ichijouji, I’m going to get you to fight me.”

Bile rose in Ken’s throat. He never wanted to fight Daisuke ever again. Getting thrown down a hill after doing something so psychologically horrifying Ken barely understood how he was capable of it was plenty. Getting punched in the face while having an actual break from reality had been the last straw for fighting in 'games'.

Daisuke didn’t seem to notice Ken’s sudden spike in anxiety, drooling over a new shooter box with zombies on the outside. He pushed open the curtain, checking out the fake guns and decorations on the inside of the shooter.

“This looks awesome! Let’s kill some zombies, Ken!”

Ken was unsure he could articulate all the varied reasons he did not want to get into the terrifying booth Daisuke was nonchalantly lounging in. He stared at Daisuke with a weirdly blank look, trying to stay in the arcade and not go - somewhere else. After several seconds of silence, Daisuke slid out of the booth and slung an arm around Ken.

“Wow, you still can’t handle horror, can you?” He joked, turning Ken away from the shooter area. 

“I just don’t like it,” Ken said. He didn’t like things that reminded him of a too-cold beach, shadow creatures and something far down in the Deep. Not that he ever said that part aloud.

Daisuke dramatically sighed. “Don’t even like fighting back against the zombie hordes. C’mon, you actually get agency in the games! It’s not like the movies you barely watch with me.”

“That makes it worse, somehow.”

Daisuke cocked an eyebrow in confusion. Ken could see the questions on his face, but they weren’t articulated.

They played a couple of action-y puzzle games, Daisuke gently ribbing Ken about his skill or lack thereof. They skipped over the fighting games section - Daisuke didn’t even send Ken imploring gazes this time - and climbed up to the racing games.

“Ooh, yeah, this is the one!” Daisuke lit up at a machine with sculpted cars in front of a large almost wrap-around screen. “We have got to try it! It’s a new racing game!”

Ken hopped into the fake car on the left. “You’re on.”

Daisuke’s excited smile was just as bright as the flashing neon lights. They put their coins in, and picked a course and car type each. The countdown began, and Ken tensed up, ready to floor it.

It was a pretty good game. Nobody was supposed to get hurt. There weren’t even drivers, he could assume the cars were autonomous. Crashes weren’t violent or bloody, and the course was difficult enough he had to concentrate mostly on where he was going next. Occasionally hearing Daisuke yell and shout next to him was actually quite calming, because it was Daisuke.

He crossed the finish line, Daisuke following a few cars after.

“Come on! How did you get first place on your first try! That’s not fair!”

Ken shrugged, vaulting off the machine. “It’s just hand eye coordination.”

After a few more games, they finally left. Daisuke continued good-naturedly needling him on the way out of the arcade building, and the two of them stood in front of it a long time, just talking. About school, their plans for the spring holidays, the new shows they were watching. Ken leaned against Daisuke, the back of his hand knocking against Daisuke’s own, who grabbed and held it.

They held hands most of the way back to Tamachi, where they continued to chat right in front of Ken’s apartment building until the sun disappeared completely.

“Would you like to stay for dinner?” Ken asked.

“Absolutely! I’ll just tell my parents.” Daisuke pulled out his phone and sent a quick mail, before the two of them went into the apartments together.

“Thank you for today, Daisuke. I had a lot of fun,” Ken said on his doorstep.

“You deserve it. You deserve everything.”

  1. Summer 2009



Summer was hard. Summer was always hard for Ichijouji Ken. Winter was better. He could wear comfortable clothes, it wasn’t always far too hot, the memories weren’t perfect but there was light and happiness and closeness.

Summer was hard. Because summer was when he’d run away from home. Seven years, and it still stuck with him, suffocated him. Daisuke and everyone else helped, but going to the digital world - just for fun, just to hang out - was still hard. It hurt, and at this point Ken was sure everyone was tired of him feeling like this. Like he hadn’t done enough, like he would never do enough to make up for what he did.

Summer was hard. Because summer was when he, Daisuke, Iori and Miyako had disappeared. Lured to the digital world on false pretenses, to help stop a new threat, only to fail utterly and completely. Locked away and used to needle their friends, his face stolen.

Summer was not the time of year for Ken. To make this one worse, Daisuke was bound and determined to get him to play a fighting game. He brought it up every time they hung out. Getting Ken out of this comfort zone seemed to be Daisuke’s whole senior project, and he simply was not letting up this time.

“No, Motomiya,” Ken said for the fifth time that Saturday, the two of them nestled in a darker corner of the crane game floor.

“Come on, is it cause you know I’ll win? You beat me at basically everything in here! That’s rude, Ichijouji.”

“That’s not it.”

“The one kind of game you’re bad at, and you refuse to even play with me.”

“I said that’s not it!” Ken snapped, immediately covering his mouth with his hand, eyes widening. “I’m sorry.”

“Ken? What is going on?”

“N-nothing.”

“If it’s not cause you’re embarrassed about being bad...do you not want to play with me? Am I the problem?”

“No, Daisuke, you would never be the problem for me.”

“Then why? You won’t even try. You at least tried that zombie game once, even though you clearly didn’t like it.”

“Why do you want me to play so badly?”

Daisuke smiled up at Ken, reaching up and grabbing for hair that wasn’t there anymore after Ken cut it short. Instead, his hand landed on Ken’s shoulder. “I want to share everything I am with you. We’re partners. And I know it’s silly, and not like, important, but fighting games are fun to me. And I want to share them with you.”

Ken felt light-headed. “Okay. I’ll try.”

They sat down at Daisuke’s favorite machine, the name sliding in and out of Ken’s brain without making any impression. He counted his breath, in for 4, hold for 4, out for 4. The characters were all extremely buff and their clothes spanned from practical to nonexistent. He picked a random girl Daisuke recommended.

Did she have a soul? Did she feel, think, desire?

Did he force her to fight?

Daisuke was explaining what attacks the buttons did. He should listen. Her eyes stared at him, pixelated and flat, but wasn’t that how he thought they all looked?

Daisuke put his hands on the controls, picked his own character.

He was fighting Daisuke. He was going to puke.

Daisuke said something. The game was starting. Something about going easy on him? Why would Daisuke go easy on him? He deserved nothing less than to be obliterated.

He pushed the buttons, and She moved. Were they friends? Was he making friends fight each other again?

He could vaguely tell he was losing. Good.

But that meant She was getting hurt more. Should he try, what would happen? They came back, they came back, but that didn’t mean the pain didn’t matter.

Round 2. Who had won 1? No one had, you can't win in this, he was giving Her commands and she had to follow and everything was just a little bit darker, like a purple tint had covered the world.

Round 3. He couldn’t. He couldn’t do it again, he stared at his hands and no he wasn’t wearing gloves was he wearing gloves long sleeves in summer were so impractical and -

Oh.

He was in the arcade. Staring at a vending machine. He was wearing his normal clothes. The world wasn’t darkened by lenses.

Daisuke was behind him, holding him. Didn’t he know he was disgusting?

Daisuke led him to the restrooms and pulled out some tissues. Who needed tissues? He wiped at Ken’s own face, coming back wet. Ken was crying.

How embarrassing.

Daisuke led him into a stall, and barely crunched the two of them inside together, locking the outside world away.

“What was that?” Daisuke whispered.

“Daisuke, I....” Ken tried. “I can’t - trust myself.”

“....Trust yourself to what?” Daisuke pushed Ken down to sit on the toilet lid.

“Tell what’s real?” Ken didn’t mean for it to come across as a question, his voice just broke at the end.

Daisuke looked equal parts upset and confused. “What do you think isn’t real?”

“I know what is real, but. What if they are real too?”

Daisuke blinked. “They?”

“The...the game. The characters. What if they’re real too?”

“I don’t think they’re like digimon, they’re different kinds of code, completely?”

“But I can’t tell! I couldn’t tell then and I can’t tell now,” Ken cried, and he could consciously feel it now, the tears coming out of his eyes.

“That wasn’t your fault-“

“I can’t blame everything I did on Milleniummon!  _ I _ couldn’t tell what was  _ real _ .”

“Okay.” Daisuke folded his arms around Ken, awkwardly looming over him. “I’m sorry.”

Ken clung to Daisuke, letting his slow heartbeat calm his own racing one. They stayed folded around each other for several minutes, luckily not being interrupted by anyone else entering the restroom. Ken finally calmed enough to respond coherently.

“Why are you sorry?”

“I - shouldn’t have made you play. I should have just accepted you didn’t want to.”

Ken stood up as best he could in the tiny space. “Please don’t stop. It’s...hard, but I like you pushing me. It...really helps me.”

The door to the restroom opened, and the two of them remained as quiet as possible to avoid detection. Daisuke nearly broke into giggles, stifling them with his hand while Ken stared. Finally, the stranger left and Daisuke let out his laughter.

“We should really get out of here, huh?”

+1. Fall 2010

Ken felt Daisuke wake up before he heard anything, his heartbeat speeding up to fall in sync with Ken’s. He paused the new game he’d been playing, an RPG that promised lots of choice. Ken was going to make sure not to hurt anyone.

“Good morning,” Ken called out to Daisuke as he pouted in his bedroom doorway.

“Why’d you  _ leave _ ? I like waking up cuddling you.” Daisuke padded over to Ken, draping himself on top of him, arms holding Ken tight.

“Because it’s almost noon? You can’t expect me to laze about in bed all day, Daisuke.”

“That sounds like a great idea, though,” Daisuke murmured, pulling Ken into a kiss.

Ken reveled in the feel of Daisuke’s mouth on his own, slightly chapped lips. He had a hand buried in Ken’s hair, the other resting on his upper thigh, not frenzied or needy but just present. It was nice to just be present with Daisuke.

They broke apart, and Ken asked, “Do you want to cook or go out for lunch?”

“Ugggh, this week was so rough, I don’t want to think about cooking at all right now,” Daisuke groaned.

“Sushi?”

“We’re going to that revolving place near the shopping district,” Daisuke declared as he stood up, wandering back to his room to presumably get ready.

When they went out nowadays, they still held hands like they did when they were younger. Except it was more. Daisuke still touched Ken’s hair, but there was a smoldering in his eyes, a hunger that wasn’t around before. Kisses were no longer aborted, touches no longer fleeting.

After sushi, they went for a walk through the shops. Ken found himself stopping in front of a tiny arcade, just a smattering of crane games and those picture booths popular with middle and high school girls.

“Want me to get you a new bunny rabbit, Ken-chan?” Daisuke eyed the crane games with interest.

“Actually...let’s take some pictures.”

Ken pulled Daisuke into the closest picture booth and they started it up. Daisuke stared up at Ken, pouting. His sunglasses caught the light and flashed a glare.

“What?”

“You’re too tall! Come down here so we don’t look weird together.”

“Won’t I look weird if I’m bent over?”

Daisuke pulled Ken into a headlock and the first picture snapped. The machine cycled, told them to get ready for the next pose. Ken escaped, wrapping his arms around Daisuke and bumping him into the back wall.

The second picture snapped, but they barely noticed as Ken leaned down and kissed Daisuke, who pushed back and opened his mouth, weakening Ken’s knees enough to get what he wanted and push Ken down so their shoulders were roughly even.

The third picture snapped and they barely noticed, too busy making out in the middle of the booth.

“Decoration time!” The booth chimed and shook them out of their reverie, and Ken pulled back to look at the pics.

“Oh no....” Ken whispered.

“Let me see!” Daisuke pushed in to the screen. “Oh no! These are  _ terrible _ !”

“Can we redo them? Jeez, I look like I’m  _ attacking _ you in that second one,” Ken hissed.

Daisuke hit the various menu options, trying to find a retake button, but no luck. “Well, I guess we’ll just have to take a second batch. But this time, we  _ plan _ the poses.”

Their second try was much better, Ken did in fact squat down to be even with Daisuke as they gave peace signs, cat poses, and one much chaster kiss to the camera.

They kept both sets of photos.

**Author's Note:**

> Man I don't know how this works but I put a bunch of like, weirdly specific japanese stuff in here so
> 
> 1.Round 1 is a real arcade/karaoke/bowling alley complex! They're all over japan. There's actually one in California now  
> 2.Ken's little bunny looks kind of like this https://www.amazon.co.jp/Colorful-Rabbit-Collection-Sumiere-Purple/dp/B075P1DG4K  
> 3.Taiko Master https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiko_no_Tatsujin actually did come out in 2001! So "new-ish"  
> 4.Taito Station is another very fun arcade in japan, they have a space invader as their 'mascot'  
> 5.ikemen means "handsome boy". Ken is absolutely the Ideal Ikemen  
> 6.I've never actually watch Happy Seven but the OP is on some older rhythm games and is a bop  
> 7.Azabu, Musashi and Kaisei are the "Three Houses For Boys", famous all-boy middle and high schools in Tokyo


End file.
